Centre Asset Management LLC Has $6.99 Million Holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC)

Centre Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 143,887 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 11,687 shares during the period. Centre Asset Management LLC’s holdings in FMC were worth $6,994,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in FMC by 115.0% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,976 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,057 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. increased its holdings in FMC by 18.7% in the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 60,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,970,000 after purchasing an additional 9,500 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in FMC by 82.9% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 49,892 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,290,000 after purchasing an additional 22,612 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in FMC during the third quarter worth $58,000. Finally, Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co acquired a new position in FMC in the third quarter valued at $205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at FMC

In other FMC news, VP Jacqueline Scanlan sold 4,529 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.67, for a total value of $270,245.43. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 28,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,709,485.83. This represents a 13.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FMC. Mizuho lifted their price objective on FMC from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of FMC from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp cut their price target on FMC from $79.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup lowered their price objective on FMC from $70.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on FMC from $75.00 to $66.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.92.

FMC Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE FMC traded up $0.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $48.84. The company had a trading volume of 116,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 697,840. The company’s fifty day moving average is $56.31 and its 200-day moving average is $59.35. The company has a market cap of $6.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. FMC Co. has a one year low of $47.71 and a one year high of $68.72.

FMC (NYSE:FMC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 7.68% and a net margin of 34.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that FMC Co. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.75%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. FMC’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.97%.

About FMC

FMC Corporation, an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, and professional pest and turf management products. It develops, markets, and sells crop protection chemicals that includes insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products, which are used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds, and diseases, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control.